Would you?
by dearLea
Summary: The hardest question; the easiest answer.


Everything was ready.  
The tablecloth on the grass, the candles and a clean blanket in case they got cold.  
But Cory was not as ready as he thought he was. He was shaking; he was so nervous.

He'd parked his car a couple of streets so that Lea wouldn't even know he was there. He wanted everything to be a surprise. If everything went well, it would be a very big surprise.

He was rubbing his hands together, pacing up and down her spacious kitchen when he heard her car pull over. He jumped a little and started panicking as he tried to remember where he was supposed to wait for her. Forgetting everything he'd planned for that evening and already having a sweaty forehead, Cory just stood there, in front of the door, doing nothing.

When the door was opened and his tiny, beautiful girlfriend came in, he welcomed her with a quiet 'hey', which made her gasp in surprise.

"Gosh, Cory, I had no idea you were here," she said placing a hand on her chest, yet quickly sending him a sweet smile. "I didn't even see your car, where-"

"Surprise," he couldn't help being the awkward Canadian guy that he was. _You were supposed to say surprise before she talked, you idiot._

"I see. A very nice surprise," she replied, placing her big purse on the floor and walking towards him. She got on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Missed you today," she said, planting a sweet kiss on his lips.

"M-Me too," he answered before even realizing that his hands were already on her butt. But no, no, no. He had to focus.

Pulling away from her, he walked towards the garden, hoping she would follow him. When she didn't, he talked.

"I prepared a little something outside."

"You did?" she asked curiously as she walked over to him and took a look outside. She opened her eyes widely and stared at the beautiful and romantic picnic he'd settled outside. The bottle of champagne and the two glasses caught her attention. "Cor, our 14th month anniversary is not until next week, baby."

"I know. I just, I thought we could have a romantic date, just because," he shrugged his shoulders, hoping she wouldn't want another reason.

She didn't. She loved those kind of surprises.  
Lea finally stepped outside and walked towards tablecloth where everything was ready. Taking off her shoes, she sat down and waited for Cory.

He had to take a deep breath and mentally force himself to walk to her. It was time. He couldn't back off now.

The picnic turned out to be great. They ate the dinner he'd picked up on his way to her house, had a nice chat about each other's day... And it was when Lea started glancing over the champagne bottle when Cory realized it was time for him to talk.

But as hard as he forced himself to say something, to start the speech he had in mind, words wouldn't leave his mouth. He couldn't form any words at all as he moved closer to her and took her hands in his, no words except for his three favorite.

"I love you."

Lea gave his hands a squeeze as her lips curled up into the widest smile. "And I love you too, Cory. More than anything."

"I just," he finally started talking, "I just feel like saying it is not enough, you know. I wanna, I wanna show it to you, Lea."

"That you love me? But you do. You show me every day," she got on her knees and looked deeply into his eyes.

"Phone calls don't show you that I love you. Sex doesn't either. Making our relationship public, taking you to snowboard with me, meeting your family, you meeting mine... It's, it doesn't show you-"

"This does," Lea interrupted him as she glanced over the leftovers of their picnic. "Everything you do for me is enough," she stroked his cheek with her fingers, "and all those things you just mentioned, they're part of our relationship and they show me more than you think," she smiled sweetly. "You're trying too hard, Cor, I'm yours, and I love you, and I know you love me," she chuckled, still not believing she had to say it so many times in order for him to believe her, when, for her, it should be the other way round. She was the lucky one. "There's nothing we haven't done together, even things we weren't really sure about, but we did them and look how close we are now. What else do you think we need to do?"

"Get married."

She let out a soft chuckle. "And we will, but until then-"

"Lea,"

This was it. The moment he had been waiting for. Pulling a blue velvet box out of his jacket inside pocket, Cory swallowed hard and looked at his girlfriend as he opened it carefully.

Her smile disappeared in two seconds. Her lips parted a little as her eyes were fixed on the shiny ring inside the box. She tried to swallow, but she couldn't.

Cory ran his tongue over his lips nervously. "I don't know if your lack of words is good or bad."

"Eh," she gulped, finally. "Uhm... W-Well, Cory... y-you... you haven't even asked me yet," she let out a nervous giggle. She was paralized. She couldn't take her eyes off the ring; it was so her, it was perfect.

"Oh. Right. Shit," he placed the tiny box on the tablecloth and took her hands one more time. "Listen, I just, I'm not saying it has to be right away, I can wait. I just need that promise," he sighed. He sucked at giving speeches. This was being way harder than he thought. "I, I can't risk losing you. I love you too much to see you walk away. And I know you keep saying that you know we're gonna spend the rest of our lives together but..., maybe this ring could be that promise. Could be us promising that it's gonna happen sometime in the future. We don't know when but it will happen."

Finally, it was out of his system. And she didn't look terrified, just speechless.

"So, Lea," he lifted up her chin with his index finger, "in one, five or ten years, would you marry me?"

"Of course I will."

She didn't need to think about it. She would have said yes if he'd asked her to marry him that same night. It was clear that nothing could stop them. It was clear that they were meant to be together; and they would be.

0o0

He yawned as soon as he opened his eyes. As he stretched out his arms, he spotted Lea sitting on bed, her back facing him as she tied her shoelaces.

"Morning, you going somewhere?"

"Hey, morning sleepyhead," Lea smiled as she turned around and kissed his lips sweetly. "Just for a run."

This woman never stopped. It was Sunday morning, the first Sunday of the month she'd had off, yet she wanted to go for a run. Cory had no idea where she got all her energies from.

"I had the weirdest dream," he said as he sat up on bed. He wondered how he could tell his girlfriend about that dream. She was gonna think he was completely insane.

"Oh, really? What was it about? Another zombie attack?" Lea giggled.

"They keep chasing us! Seriously, this time it was zombies and crazy nuns and very creepy creatures banging on our door."

"Geez, Cory, what have you been watching lately?" she laughed; she loved teasing him.

"I dunno, American Horror Story?" he frowned.

Lea laughed again. "Could be," she said as she threw one of Cory's huge sweatshirts over her head. "Anyways babe, I'm going out, I'll be back in a half hour."

And after saying goodbye, Lea walked outside her house, but before starting to run, she found herself leaning on her front door and staring up at the shiny sun.  
What was happening to her? Why did she keep having those dreams? Cory proposing has been appearing in her dreams every single night for the past two weeks. One way or another, with a lame or a very good excuse, Cory always found a reason to propose in her dreams.  
Why, Lea didn't know, but the thought had been stuck in her head for weeks. She didn't have time for a wedding, she had too many things going on in her life; besides, Cory wasn't going to propose any time soon, she knew that. They'd talked about it. Yet the thought didn't seem to go away...  
She shook her head and started running. And it was when she got back home, panting, sweating, and with her mind all clear, when she realized one thing, the most obvious reason why she'd kept having those proposal dreams. She might have a lot of things going on, her life might be full without a minute to rest, but that didn't mean she didn't want to get married; that didn't mean she wasn't ready.

And as she came into her house and found Cory peacefully watching tv half asleep, she knew that she was. She knew she was ready.  
So no matter when, how, or with what reason he proposed, Lea knew what her answer would be.


End file.
